Trc faith Communities Hearings Report

2. Faith communities in South Africa

2.1 Problems of definition

As long as the Commission merely wanted a “churches” hearing (as originally intended)⁴ there was no definitional problem. South Africa as a western-style state had its “religious” and its “secular” components structured within “church” and “state” sectors. Muslim, Hindu, and Jewish communities were able to survive in South Africa largely by conforming to the political context and taking the same place institutionally as churches did. When the Commission recognised that other faith communities had to be included, the problem arose as to how this should be done.⁵ It was decided to have a “faith communities’” hearing rather than simply a churches hearing.

What is a “faith community”? What are its boundaries? How much can it be identified with the actions and interests of its constituents? For while it is true that many faith communities represent in principle a loyalty that cuts across ethnic, racial, gender and class divisions, this is always not so in practice. The Dutch Reformed Church from an early period could not maintain itself as a single community and had to develop an identity as a racially segregated volkskerk, splitting-off its non-white members into “mission churches”. African Initiated Churches can be accounted for in many different ways--on the basis of a class analysis, as a part of a “cultural struggle”, or as a response to racism--as well as in terms of the attempt to create an indigenous ecclesial identity.⁶ Likewise theological divisions amongst Muslims also reflect cultural and class distinctions between the Malay and Indian origins of that community, exacerbated by apartheid’s division of “Indians” and “coloureds”.⁷

It is not the place of this report to conduct a theoretical analysis of the relations between class, race, gender, and ethnic factors on the one side and “faith” on the other. For the purpose of this report, we take it for granted that faith communities exist--that is, communities defined by loyalty to a particular faith-tradition--but within a context with many other competing loyalties.

The term “faith community” is also problematic because it seems to indicate a degree of homogeneity amongst organisations as diverse as the South African Council of Churches, the Ramakrishna Institute, the Baptist Union, the Call of Islam and the Uniting Reformed Church congregation of Messina--all of which made submissions as faith communities to the TRC, and which confessed their own failures.⁸ Remembering that the original intention of the hearings was for Christian churches to assess their conduct under apartheid, the term “faith communities” may still contain this intention, only in different terms. It certainly seemed generally (though not always) appropriate to churches, but less so to other faiths. Do practitioners of African Traditional Religion, for example, constitute a faith community in the same way as, for instance, members of the CPSA? Arguably the boundaries between African Traditional Religion and, for example, Christianity are of a different nature than those between Christianity and Judaism. This was made evident in the fact that many “spokespersons” for the African religious community are also practising Christians, and are not recognised as members (let alone representatives) of the African religious community by other practitioners of ATR. Indeed the invocation of the Genesis creation story by the representative of ATR at the hearings to substantiate his claims about the philosophy of ubuntu would have been seen as a syncretistic betrayal of the African Religious community he claimed to represent.⁹

The groups that made submissions to the TRC under the name “faith communities” obviously differ according to tradition (Christian, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu & Traditional). But they also represented different kinds of organisations--some highly organised, with a defined and centralised leadership structure; others more loosely associated, with emphasis on the local community; still others with close ties to ethnic or tribal boundaries. With its links to the amaKhosi in KwaZulu-Natal, the Ibandla lamaNazaretha Church resembles African traditional communities more than many Christian churches, while the Baptist Union’s decentralised and voluntarist nature makes it institutionally more similar to South African Hinduism than the strong hierarchical character of the Roman Catholic Church. There are also important theological and ideological similarities and differences amongst and between faith communities represented. The ideological perspective of the Institute for Contextual Theology was much closer to the Call of Islam (Faried Esack) than it was to the Church of England in SA.

All this is to recognise that we are not dealing with homogeneous phenomena when looking at faith communities. This has implications both for the question of representation and for issues of accountability--which we must return to below.

2.2 A note on our position

Given the heterogeneous nature of faith communities in South Africa, it is difficult to locate a single norm that all would share and which could function as an evaluative yardstick for their behaviour within society during the period of which the Commission is concerned. Perhaps the term “gross human rights abuses” points to one such norm. Unfortunately the meaning of this term was not clearly defined by the Commission. The fact that faith communities came (for the most part) with confessions of complicity and wrongdoing implies however that they certainly operated according to a norm or set of standards they felt they had violated, whether derived from their tradition (as the SDA and Salvation Army) or from a general societal or constitutional understanding of human rights (which characterised much of the discourse of the English-speaking churches).

It is fair to say that one term that is shared amongst almost all faith communities is the term “prophetic”. The exception to this would be the African religious community, although it is arguable that a figure like the nineteenth century Xhosa leader Nxele was as prophetic a figure as Christianity or any other religion in South Africa has produced. This prophetic strand exists, not purely within a faith community, but in tension with its social-legitimising function. This social legitimising function is usually ambiguous--it can be a boost for nation-building (as can be seen by the recognition of the role of faith communities by President Mandela) or it can plunge into idolatry (as we saw under apartheid).

This report holds that given the nature of the apartheid regime, faith communities, functioning according to their deepest traditions, ought to have been prophetic and vocal and denouncing rather than blindly legitimating social structures. This perspective is broadly shared by all who made submissions, and it will form our point of departure in section three.

Put another way, this report holds that the faith communities hearings constituted a summing up of the church struggle in South Africa (though broadened-out to include other faiths), and that all communities present there either explicitly or strongly implied that that struggle was a just one and that they should have contributed more to it. This report shall take this point of view, and argue that South Africa is still a site of struggle--especially socioeconomically. Therefore it is appropriate to use the same terms of analysis (victim, perpetrator and agent of social change) in looking back, because these same categories present themselves as possibilities as we look ahead to the future.

2.3 Faith communities in South Africa: a brief picture

The Commission exacerbated the problem of defining faith communities by inviting submissions simply of those institutions it deemed to be “players” in the former years.¹⁰ Fortunately as word got out, other institutions and individuals made submissions, promising a larger and more accurate picture.

The submissions that were received by the Commission¹¹ can be organised broadly into those that came from groups connected to the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Baha’i faith traditions. There were also submissions claiming to represent “the African Traditional Religious community”, as well as a representation from women in religion.¹² Within these traditions there are different categories of submissions: those from individuals (of which there were three), local faith communities (e.g. Hatfield Christian Church), denominational representatives, ecumenical and interfaith groups, which were not faith communities in the strict sense but organisations made up of persons and groups representing various denominations or communities, and special groups which worked within specific traditions (e.g. the Belydende Kring which worked within the Dutch Reformed family of churches). There were submissions from theological bodies, including the Institute for Contextual Theology and the Muslim Jamiatul Ulama--neither of whom represented all Christians or Muslims respectively but saw themselves as resources for their communities. There was also a submission from the World Conference on Religion and Peace, a coalition of adherents of various faith traditions which formed its South African chapter in 1984.

It must be recognised that no presentation of faith in South Africa (or anywhere else for that matter) is beyond contestation. The complex picture presented by faith communities in South Africa--with or without reference to their position under apartheid--is in large part due to the ways religion has contextualised itself under South African conditions (see section 2.1). There are a number of possible ways to present South Africa’s faith communities and their submissions to the TRC. One is to look at how each saw itself in relation to apartheid and to the liberation movements. In their submissions, faith communities located themselves in terms of being “supportive” of the old regime (notably the DRC), as “neutral” with reference to the old regime (usually invoking a “nature of the church” vs. “nature of the state” argument), or as “opposed” to the old regime (usually, though not necessarily always, in solidarity with the liberation movements).¹³ We will expand on this in examining and analysing the submissions. But first we must introduce the various players who will feature in that more specific discussion.

This is not intended as a comprehensive account of South Africa’s faith communities.¹⁴ No doubt it will be argued that some of the players mentioned represent minority groups,¹⁵ such as the Baha’i Faith, while scant mention is made of groups with relatively large followings. Many such groups declined to represent themselves before the Commission and so will only feature here to provide background for those that did appear. Space constraints mean that only a few sentences can be given to each grouping, often without relation to their size or importance.

2.3.1 General comments on the history of South African religion

Apartheid mythology taught that the first settlers entered a religious vacuum when they landed at the Cape and encountered its indigenous inhabitants. This is manifestly untrue. Far from being an “empty container” into which religion could be emptied, Khoisan culture was already religiously rich. While the early settlers included a small number of Catholics and Jews, only the Reformed faith was officially recognised. In 1804 the de Mist Order set the stage not only for a proliferation of Christian denominations at the Cape, but also for other religions. Both Judaism and Islam were well-established by the middle of the 19th century. Christianity remained strongly favoured, however, with some churches subsidised by the Cape government. The passing of the Voluntary Act in 1875, while recognising the importance of religion in the Colony, effectively re-constituted faith communities alike as voluntary societies.

The Union of South Africa made little pretension of being a “Christian” state, and the relation between its early leaders, Jan Smuts and Louis Botha (and even Barry Hertzog) and Christianity was not politically significant. The rise of African nationalism, however, was closely connected with Christianity--especially that which carried with it the liberal values of the original missionaries. Ironically, as the century wore on, many missionaries championed segregation policies, often in the teeth of opposition of their converts. While much, if not most, of the policies identified with apartheid and its violation of human rights was anticipated in the decades before, an ideological change came in 1948 with the coming to power of D. F. Malan’s new National Party. The National Party espoused an ideology called “Christian nationalism”--a synthesis of neo-Calvinism, reformed pietism and Fichtian romanticist nationalism which would soon transform the country.¹⁶

For many years, the Dutch Reformed Church acted as an organ of legitimisation for Christian Nationalism and apartheid and was de facto, if not de jure, the established church.¹⁷ Gradually, however, the state took upon itself the role of “guardian of the faith”--something which gave the DRC space to distance itself from its previous function of legitimator of apartheid. This new role for the state was evident most strongly in the Preamble to the 1983 Constitution. Ironically, it was this now blatantly “Christian” constitution that attempted to co-opt Muslims and Hindus (who constituted an important part of the Coloured and Indian communities) into the tricameral system. And it was this constitution that was strongly opposed by a coalition of Christian, Muslim and other religious groups, in solidarity with liberation movements, many of whom already had origins or strong connections with religious communities.

2.3.2 African traditional religion

Often classified as “primal religion”¹⁸ African religion may simply refer to the religion of Africans practised from antiquity to the first contact with European settlers. As practised today, however, “the religion of Africans” is contested amongst those who espouse a “purified” form (purified especially from all Christian, or missionary influences)¹⁹ and those who have adapted the religion or mobilised its resources within the Christian tradition. African religion has provided “an open set of resources” for negotiating human existence, and the “traditional” in ATR is not only something “handed down”, but something “taken up”.²⁰ What this means for the Commission’s investigations is simply that the contextual element is always present, whether positively or negatively; that is, the fact that contact with other religions changed the shape of ATR does not in itself constitute an abuse. On the contrary, ATR as a religion was able to transform itself into a map for the negotiation of life in a colonial and post-colonial context. The abuse comes when such expressions are suppressed in the name of another religion, such as “Christianity”. But it should also be noted that ideas of “traditional” were also useful to oppressive regimes that wanted to lock Africans into a particular way of life.

2.3.3 Protestant Christianity

2.3.3.1 Ecumenical Churches

While not representing the largest number of adherents amongst the faith communities, by far the majority of the submissions, as well as the most extensive and detailed, came from Protestant Churches. The amount of space given them is not an indicator of their special importance, but rather to aid in understanding some of the nuances in their submissions.

Protestant Christianity in SA has two originating strands: mission and settler. Mission Christianity existed for the purpose of propagating Christianity amongst indigenous peoples. In the process, the missions established schools and hospitals, helped in the development of vernacular languages, published newspapers, and engaged in many other activities which had widespread cultural and social significance. Settler Christianity was brought along with the Europeans who emigrated to South Africa and functioned in part to give them a sense of continuity with institutions of the mother country. By the middle of the twentieth century mission and settler Christianity had consolidated into many different denominations.

Mission Christianity recognised the need for African Christians to develop their own structures, which led to the formation of denominations such as the Bantu Congregational Church (now part of the United Congregational Church), the Tsonga Presbyterian Church (now the Evangelical Presbyterian Church), and the Bantu Presbyterian Church, which would later be renamed the Reformed Presbyterian Church. While the Reformed Presbyterian Church counted officials of the former homelands among its members, it is different in kind from a church such as The United Methodist Church, which was set up in the Transkei specifically as an alternative to the anti-Bantustan Methodist Church of Southern Africa.

One of the oldest Protestant movements in South Africa is the Moravian Church. Indeed, the first missionary in South Africa was Moravian. With a strong ecumenical tradition, the Moravian Church was a founder member of the SACC and its predecessor, the Christian Council. Moravian missions had two foci: the Eastern Cape (mainly amongst Xhosa-speakers) and the Western Cape (mainly amongst the Coloured population). In the 1990s the two sections united in one church.

Some mission and settler churches of the same tradition combined to form one multi-racial denomination, though not usually integrated at local levels, and these have generally been known as “the English-speaking churches”, notably the Methodist, Presbyterian, and United Congregational Churches of Southern Africa. The Church of the Province of Southern Africa represents the dominant stream of Anglicanism and is grouped together with these other churches (although it has in its history attempted to build formal ties with the Dutch Reformed Church).²¹ The smaller Church of England in South Africa, though also tracing its roots to the arrival of the first English settlers at the beginning of the nineteenth century, is conservative-evangelical in theology and is not normally grouped with the mainline English-speaking churches.

Although the black constituencies of the multi-racial Protestant churches soon became the largest part of their membership, their leadership has until recently tended to come from their white minority. Also they have a history of supporting middle-class black aspirations but shying away from more radical social and economic demands.²² This helps account for their ambivalence in supporting liberation movements, while voicing opposition to apartheid policies. The ethos of these churches could be described as “ecumenical” and indeed they have been seeking union for several decades. They are also institutions that have undergone much change--particularly with reference to the racial makeup of their leadership.

Most of the churches mentioned above are members of the South African Council of Churches, an inter-church organisation which was originally formed in 1936 as the Christian Council of South Africa, which in turn was anticipated by a series of regular General Missionary Conferences. The SACC was constituted in 1968 and soon saw its relations with its white dominated English-speaking member churches become strained over the WCC’s Program to Combat Racism (PCR) that diverted funds to support liberation groups. In the early seventies it had reached a turning point, being declared by the government a “black organisation”. Significant within this phase of ecumenical Christianity was the activity of the Christian Institute (CI), which openly identified itself with the black consciousness movement.²³ The CI was banned in 1977. In the 1980s, The Institute for Contextual Theology helped to radicalise the Council’s theological agenda.²⁴ Many of its member churches at an institutional or denominational level, however, remained cautious. For these reasons, its activities and those of its member churches cannot be simplistically identified.

While, as we stated, Protestant Christianity in South Africa is broadly ecumenical, not all Protestant Churches are members of the SACC. The Salvation Army withdrew in the early 1970s over its alliance with the PCR and support of the End Conscription Campaign, as did the mostly white Baptist Union. The mostly black Baptist Convention, which split from the Union in 1987, is however a member of the Council.²⁵ The Salvation Army rejoined the SACC in 1994. The Church of England in South Africa, with its conservative theological and political ethos, has never been a member – a fact which it strongly asserted during the apartheid struggle to indicate its patriotism.

2.3.3.2 Evangelical Churches and Groups
“Evangelical” is difficult to define as it can be used as a synonym for “Protestant”. This is indicated in the official title of the Lutheran churches, viz. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Southern Africa. Many individual Christians within the ecumenical churches consider themselves “evangelical” and here the term is used theologically as over-against liberal or some other kind of theology. While we have distinguished this group from the “ecumenical” group above, it must be recognised that not all evangelicals are anti-ecumenical (indeed they are “ecumenical” with reference to other evangelicals).

As used here, the term refers to groups including denominations which have a conservative-evangelical theological ethos (e.g. the Baptist Union and the Church of England in South Africa--see the previous section), independent or semi-independent groups which exist within “mainline” Protestant churches, including para-church agencies such as Scripture Union (an organisation devoted to the evangelism of children and youth), and some independent congregations of evangelical orientation such as the Rosebank Union Church in Johannesburg.²⁶ Generally-speaking, evangelical Christianity has been politically conservative and sometimes reactionary.²⁷ As a result more progressive evangelicals formed organisations such as Concerned Evangelicals in the late 1980s, and produced documents expressing strong public opposition to apartheid.²⁸ Some “migrated” to more ecumenical churches while others engaged in debates that led to denominational splits, particularly the Baptist Convention. The legacy of all these groups is represented in the submission of The Evangelical Alliance of South Africa (TEASA), a new coalition of evangelical bodies founded in November 1995 that presently has a membership of thirty-one denominations representing about two million people.

The first missionaries of The Seventh Day Adventist Church arrived in South Africa in 1887, and the Church was organised in 1892 as the South African Conference of Seventh Day Adventists. It was an integral part of the world body, becoming a Union comprising the Cape and Natal/Transvaal conferences, along with Cape (Coloured) and Black missions in 1901. An Indian mission was organised in 1956 in Natal/Transvaal. In 1960, the church was reorganised into two distinct groups, one for Black (“Bantu”) members and the other for the rest. These merged in 1991. The SDA Church in South Africa numbers fewer than 100,000 baptised adult members.

The Baptist Union came into being in South Africa in 1877 and was predominantly British. By the end of the century, British immigration swelled the number of South African Baptists. Though from a non-conformist heritage, Baptist congregations were also typical “settler” churches, serving to reinforce loyalty to the Empire. The Baptist Missionary Society was formed in 1892 and the movement soon spread beyond the white, English-speaking community. Known for prizing local congregational autonomy, nevertheless there were institutions which allowed Baptists to engage the public sphere, such as the Christian Citizenship Committees. It was only in 1976 that the Union advocated integrated congregations, and the long-standing tension between progressive (mostly black) and conservative members grew until 1987 when the Baptist Convention was constituted as a separate body.²⁹

2.3.3.3 Dutch Reformed Churches
The Dutch Reformed Church³⁰ is the largest of the four white Afrikaans-speaking churches within the Dutch Reformed tradition, but it is the only one to have made a submission to the TRC. The other three churches are the Hervormde Kerk, the Gereformeerde Kerk and the Afrikaanse Protestante Kerk,³¹ the latter a result of a schism within the DRC when the DRC began to move away from supporting apartheid policies.³²

Although it had ecumenical strands, with the Cape and Transvaal Synods participating in the Christian Council until 1940, the DRC distanced itself from the ecumenical movement after the Cottesloe Consultation in 1960, and functioned in many ways like an official, established church throughout the apartheid years. Along with the National Party and the Afrikaner Broederbond , the DRC was closely identified with Afrikaner nationalism and its 1,3 million members at present account for sixty percent of Afrikaners. After the transition to democracy in 1994, the DRC became an observer member of the SACC.

Like some of the English-speaking missionary churches the DRC formed its own “mission churches”--the N. G. Sendingkerk (Coloured, 1881, but stemming from a synod decision of 1857), the N. G. Kerk in Afrika (African, originally “the NGK Bantu Church of SA”, 1951) and the Reformed Church (Indian). While its origins predate the advent of apartheid, this “family” of churches came to exemplify the expression of the apartheid ideal in the church. Ecumenical efforts within the “family” were tied to opposing this ideal. In 1978 a unification of the former DRC family churches was proposed and, in 1994, the N. G. Kerk in Africa and the Sendingkerk united under the name The Uniting Reformed Church of South Africa. The vision of the URCSA is to bring all the former segregated churches together in one denomination--something which has yet to be fulfilled as negotiations with the DRC and Indian Reformed Churches are ongoing.

Within the DRC “family” groups arose specifically opposing the theological justification of apartheid. Most notable (and unfortunately absent from the Commission) was the Christian Institute, led by a former Moderator of the Southern Transvaal synod, Beyers Naudé. Established in 1963 after the DRC had rejected the Cottesloe Consultation’s Report, the CI was ecumenical in orientation and became increasingly identified with the liberation movements. It was banned in 1977. The Belydende Kring or “Confessing Circle” (formerly called the “Broederkring”) was formed in 1974 and made up of dissident ministers within the Black, Indian and Coloured NG churches who were engaged in the struggle against apartheid.

2.3.4 Historically African churches

By “historically African churches”, we mean churches that were started by Africans as a response to colonialism or missionary suppression of African aspirations or culture. Often referred to as African “Independent”, “Instituted”, “Indigenous” or “Initiated” Churches, these have been referred to as a unique, “fourth type” of Christianity in the world, taking their place alongside Protestantism, Catholicism and Orthodoxy.³³ In 1991, AICs accounted for more than one third of the Christian population in South Africa.³⁴

AICs are sometimes dubbed “syncretistic” in their attempt to combine African traditional elements with mission Christianity. It is more helpful to understand them as “contextual innovations”--as indeed all faith communities in South Africa must be understood.³⁵ The first AIC’s were not so much a synthesis of African traditional religion and Protestant Christianity as an attempt by a rising African middle-class to construct a Christianity that was like its Protestant forebears but under the control of Africans. This “type” was termed by Bengt Sundklar as “Ethiopian” and was not represented at the Commission.³⁶

While the Ethiopian churches “were African replicas of Christian denominations and were an explicit response to racial inequality”, Zionist Christianity arose from the economic conditions of an urban proletariat.³⁷ Within “mainstream” Zionism by far the largest group is the Zion Christian Church, which in the 1980s grew from 2,7 to 7,4 percent of all Christians in South Africa.³⁸ The ZCC combines worship with sponsorship of successful business and other enterprises, and is perhaps best known for its openness to political leaders, who are invited to its annual gathering at Moria.³⁹

Also belonging within the family of African Initiated Churches is the amaNazaretha, popularly known as “the Shembe church”. This is the second largest AIC in southern Africa, numbering about half a million members, the majority of whom are Zulu. Mobilising specifically “Zulu” cultural resources, the church hierarchy mirrors Zulu social structure, something that makes it distinct amongst AICs.⁴⁰

The ethos of the AICs varies and it is even more difficult to generalise in their case than in that of the other faith communities. Opinions vary on the extent to which members of these churches were involved in the political struggle against apartheid and as yet much research needs to be done on the subject.⁴¹ Clearly those within the Ethiopian tradition, which had long identified with African nationalism, were committed to the liberation movement along with their black compatriots in the mission and settler churches. The ethos of Zionist churches has been less overtly political, and some churches such as the ZCC have insisted on their political neutrality. Indeed, the ZCC appears to have been aligned with more conservative political forces, even though it now rejects such a claim.⁴² But it would be misleading to generalise about these churches. Comprised largely of the marginalised poor, it is inconceivable that all their members refrained from the struggle against apartheid. While The Council of African Initiated Churches is a member of the SACC, some other AICs (including especially the ZCC) have displayed reluctance to be involved in ecumenical activity, whether with other AICs or with bodies such as the SACC.⁴³ The ZCC, however, now has an ecumenical office in Johannesburg.

2.3.5 The Roman Catholic Church

Much of what can be said of English-speaking Protestant Christianity in terms of social and ecumenical ethos could be written of the Roman Catholic Church. Like the Protestant English-speaking churches, the Roman Catholic Church has a long history of involvement in education, health work and other forms of social engagement. Unlike the Protestant churches, however, it refused to accede to government demands to close its schools following the Bantu Education Act of 1953, financing them with funds raised locally and overseas.⁴⁴

Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion by the Afrikaner nationalist government, with the Roomse Gevaar following close on Swart Gevaar and Rooi Gevaar. This made it marginal within the South African Christian scene.⁴⁵ In some ways this made the Roman Catholic Church more cautious at times in its opposition to apartheid, though its record in opposing apartheid is at least equal to that of any of the other English-speaking churches. The hierarchy of the Catholic church in South Africa is similar to that of other churches, with the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) taking an important leadership role--especially in the 1980s. Since the 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church has been ecumenically engaged, and after some years as an observer of the SACC it became a full member in 1995. Eleven percent of South Africa’s Christians in 1991 declared themselves Roman Catholics.

2.3.6 Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity

After Roman Catholics, Pentecostal and charismatic Christians account for the largest group of Christians in the world. In South Africa, Pentecostal churches, including those in African Initiated Churches, account for one quarter of the population.⁴⁶ South African Pentecostalism is represented both in some of the “spirit-type” African Initiated Churches and in those churches which have long been white-controlled, notably the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM), Assemblies of God and Full Gospel Church of God. While the Assemblies of God did not make an official submission, included in the TEASA team at the hearings was Rev. Colin LaVoy, a national leader. Also included was Dr Derek Morphew of Vineyard Ministries, a prominent charismatic groups of churches. This illustrates the close ties between Pentecostal, charismatic and evangelical Christians in South Africa.

Much of what was said about the Dutch Reformed Church could be repeated of the Apostolic Faith Mission, which over the years has provided a space for many ex-DRC members who wanted a more emotionally orientated expression of Christian faith and worship. While it grew out of the early racially inchoate Pentecostal movement, it soon grew to reflect the racially segregated structure of the Dutch Reformed Church. The power and constitution of the church was controlled by white members and before 1991 only whites could be “legal” members.⁴⁷ In 1990, the three non-white sections formed a “composite” church--from 1993 under the leadership of Frank Chikane. In 1996 the various sections united. The AFM’s support of apartheid was explicit, something which may help account for some African Pentecostals’ unwillingness to criticise the policy while separating themselves from their white colleagues institutionally.⁴⁸

Many newly established independent charismatic Churches now exist throughout South Africa, especially in white suburbs. The Hatfield Christian Church in Pretoria (five thousand members) and Rhema Bible Church of Johannesburg (some ten thousand members) are prominent examples--especially of so-called “Mega-Churches”. In ethos, these churches strove (at least outwardly)⁴⁹ in the eighties to eschew political involvement--particularly of dissuading their members from becoming involved in the anti-apartheid movements. But since the Rustenberg Conference in 1990, where Ray McCauley emerged as a leading figure, they have had a higher public profile. The International Federation of Christian Churches, which links most of these churches together, has grown remarkably since its founding in 1984 and now has over four hundred member churches. From 1992 the IFCC has held observer status at the SACC.

2.3.7 Islam⁵⁰

While Islam may have been in South Africa as early as the fifteenth century⁵¹ its origins within South Africa are usually traced to the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. During this period, the Dutch East India Company brought slaves from the Indonesian Archipelago to the refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope. They also used the Cape as a banishment outpost for anti-colonial leaders. Many of these slaves and exiles were Muslims. If Islam at the Cape has a “founder”, it would be Shaykh Yusuf of Macassar, who arrived as a political prisoner in 1694 and, despite restrictions placed on him, was able to communicate tenets of Islam to slaves and free blacks. While only three of his party would remain after his death in 1699, by the 1830s his tomb was a popular site. Islam developed a strong base in Malay slaves during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries--facilitated in part by the relaxing of the law which punished its practice by death.⁵² Many of the indentured Indian labourers and free traders that came to the Transvaal and Natal in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were Muslims, and they planted religious roots wherever they settled. Islam has been marginalised by the state for most of its existence in South Africa. This reflects imported European-Christendom constructions of “otherness”, with Islam existing at the boundaries of Europe. Over the years, however, many Christians and Muslims in South Africa have made common cause around social and moral issues, particularly apartheid oppression.

According to the official 1991 census, Muslims numbered approximately 1,1 percent of the population, although this number is probably too low.

The Muslim Judicial Council was formed in 1945 in the Cape. It was set up to promote unity amongst Muslims but also to promote unity amongst all oppressed non-Europeans. Generally taking an apolitical stance⁵³ the movement was radicalised only some years after the death in detention of Imam Abdullah Haron. Haron’s death also created a leadership vacuum amongst Muslim youth, one that was filled by the Muslim Youth Movement of SA, which was established in 1970--one year after his death.⁵⁴

A split within the Muslim Youth Movement of SA led to the formation of the Call of Islam⁵⁵ in 1984, a group whose understanding of Islam was in broad agreement with the principles of the United Democratic Front (UDF). The COI clergy leadership emerged as prominent spokespersons, leading to the radicalisation of the MJC--at least at a public level. A more radical group, Qiblah, had already been formed in 1980 and supported the PAC agenda.⁵⁶ The MYMSA, Qiblah and COI were however united in opposition to the tricameral constitution--and opposed to the more conservative Jamiatul Ulama in the Transvaal (JUT--formed originally in 1922) which supported tricameral politics.⁵⁷ The conservative Ulama movements generally also opposed the ecumenical co-operation between Muslim groups and what they termed “infidels” (Christians, Jews, Hindus and secularists).⁵⁸

2.3.8 Judaism⁵⁹

The Jewish community in South Africa is relatively small, numbering less than 0,3 percent of the South African population.⁶⁰ Like Muslims, Jews came to South Africa in two main waves: the first of mainly British and German origin emigrated from the early nineteenth century; the second of persecuted Jews of Eastern European origin arrived toward the end of the nineteenth century. While English-speaking Jews were considered “safe”, others were subject to harassment both by other whites and by the state.⁶¹ Indeed, it has been said that “the Jewish community has been subjected to more discriminatory legislation than any other white group”-- especially controlling immigration.⁶²

In 1841, the Tikvat Israel Synagogue in Cape Town was built, providing a focus for Cape Town Jewry. More followed, with Oudtshoorn providing an example of a vibrant community. The two main representative bodies for Jews are the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (formed in 1912) and the SA Zionist Federation (1898). Originally South African Jews looked to the Chief Rabbi of Britain for spiritual leadership. Eventually, synagogues in the Transvaal federated under a chief rabbi in 1933 with an amalgamation of Cape and Transvaal groupings (which had remained fairly independent centres) in 1986. South African Judaism, as in other places, is divided into orthodox and reformed groups. The Chief Rabbi of South Africa represents orthodox Judaism. Reform Judaism, which started in South Africa in 1933, is known for its relative conservatism in practice and comprises seventeen percent of South African Jews.⁶³

The ethos of Judaism generally in SA is a kind of non-observant orthodoxy which reveres certain traditions (such as synagogue attendance on important occasions and feast days) but which also is less strict with reference to other traditions (such as refraining from driving on the Sabbath and keeping Kosher outside the home).⁶⁴ While Jews made their greatest contributions to South African society as individuals, there have also been organisations which have played roles. During the last years of apartheid, Jews for Justice and Jews for Social Justice were important voices of protest. The Gesher Movement, formed in Johannesburg in 1996, aims “to serve as a Jewish lobby speaking with one independent voice, “to enlighten” the Jewish community in the new South Africa, and to combat Jewish racism.”⁶⁵

2.3.9 Hinduism⁶⁶

The Hindu community makes up seventy percent of the one million South African Indians. The first Indians came to South Africa in 1860 to work as indentured labour, mainly on sugar plantations in Natal. After the term of their indenture ended, many stayed on as farmers--despite government attempts to repatriate them in the 1920s. The so-called “free” or “passenger Indians” arrived towards the end of the nineteenth century, and set up trade and merchant businesses. Indians in South Africa are a very diverse group, including four major language groups with distinctive (though sometimes overlapping) worship practices, religious rites, customs and dress.

From the turn of the century, the need arose for the various Hindu communities and religious institutions to come together under the banner of a national body. The Hindu Maha Sabha was formed in 1912, to provide a co-ordinated means to discussing the religious, cultural, educational, social and economic welfare of the Hindu community. It embraces the four main language groups, temple societies and neo-religious organisations which subscribe to the views of Hinduism.

2.3.10 Buddhism

While some Buddhists came to South Africa from India, and other Indians have converted to the religion since its arrival late in the nineteenth century, most South African Buddhists are white converts. Buddhism in South Africa does not have centralised structures, but is present in small organisations and centres. The first Buddhist society was formed in 1917 in Natal. Buddhism grew amongst whites through the work of Molly and Louis van Loon and others, who travelled and learned its practices abroad. The Dharma Centre, rooted in the Zen tradition, was set up at Somerset West in 1984 by Heila and Rodney Downey.⁶⁷

2.3.11 The Bahai Faith

While present in South Africa since 1911, the Baha’i Faith only began to grow in the 1950s. While committed to inclusivity, the South African Baha’i community worked to promote its black leadership. This was, as it says, “a result of [its] great emphasis on spiritual, moral, and ethical aspects of community life.”⁶⁸ The Baha’i faith places great stress on offering itself as model for reconciliation, both racial and religious.